Vertical Consultants, which represents landowners in negotiations regarding cell-tower lease transactions, including those for self-storage, has added a Question of the Week segment to its social media and website features. The company encourages self-storage owners to submit questions related to cell-tower leases via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook or through the companys website.

Each week, company experts will answer questions regarding cell-tower lease issues and the telecom industry. Answers will be delivered through a video feed on the companys social-media sites and www.vertical-consultants.com.

With this new venture, we hope to connect property owners with an educational platform that will help them achieve full value for telecoms use of their land, said Hugh Odom, president.

Founded in 2010, Vertical Consultants is comprised of a group of wireless-industry veterans with more than 40 years of combined experience. The company specializes in issues surrounding the wireless-telecom industry, providing property owners with the information they need to make decisions regarding their cell-tower lease agreements.

The company also helps self-storage owners recoup unpaid and underpaid rent from wireless providers. Areas of expertise include telecom-site acquisition and development, lease negotiation, and the legal issues surrounding such transactions.

The self-storage industrys reputation as a recession-resistant asset class is attracting waves of new investors to the market, according to Doug McCarron, a managing director in the capital markets division of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a financial and professional services firm specializing in real estate services and investment management, including self-storage.

As recently as five years ago, 90 percent of self-storage investments came from traditional buyers, with just 10 percent of investments attracting new money to the market, according to McCarron. In todays market, 40 percent of self-storage investments are being generated by new capital sources, he told the source.

Whether its equity or people looking to find their way into the space, there are new capital sources for this sector, McCarron said in a recent interview with GlobeSt.com.

Part of the reason for the influx of new investors is the industrys performance next to comparable asset classes, such as multi-family properties, which are significantly underperforming compared to self-storage. Even during the steep economic downturn from 2009 to 2010, self-storage occupancy remained strong, with vacancies hovering in single-digit percentages, he said.

Its a very strong asset class, yet it has not gained a lot of institutional interest, McCarron said. The top players in the industry control less than 10 percent of the storage space, but consolidation is taking place.

McCarron joined JLL last month from HFF (Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP) to help broaden the companys reach in self-storage transactions. His expertise is in the acquisition and disposition of self-storage properties, financing and commercial equities.

JLL expects the self-storage market to continue to show improvement into next year. McCarron previously has identified Chicago; New York; San Francisco; Seattle; Washington, D.C.; and West Los Angeles as high-performing self-storage markets.

StorageMart, a self-storage company with 127 locations across the United States and Canada, is expanding its Draw My Favorite Teacher contest to 18 public schools near the companys Oakland, Calif., facilities. The company previously invited 39 public schools in Brooklyn, N.Y., to participate in the contest, which encourages public-school students in grades K-5 to submit drawings of their favorite teachers with a chance to win prizes for themselves and their school.

In addition to selecting grand-prize winners in both cities, the company will recognize three runners-up in both contests.

Grand prizes include a $500 check to the winning teacher and a storage unit filled with about $3,000 worth of supplies, including physical-education equipment and materials for art and music, for the affiliated school. The student whose drawing is chosen as the grand-prize winner will win a pizza party for his or her class. The three runners-up will each receive a $100 check.

StorageMart kicked off the contest by sending selected schools an entry kit with drawing pages. The pages provide students with drawing space and a few lines for a short sentence about their favorite teacher. Schools must submit student entries by Nov. 1. The company also provided a postage-paid box for return shipping.

Company officials will narrow down the pictures to four finalists in each contest and publish them on the StorageMart Gives Facebook page. Grand-prize winners will be selected by majority vote. The top finalists in Brooklyn and Oakland will receive their areas grand prize, and the three remaining finalists in both locations will receive runners-up prizes. Voting will be open Nov. 5-18.

StorageMart will announce the winners on Nov. 19. Prizes will be awarded the week of Nov. 26.

Although the company pre-selected public schools in the communities surrounding its Brooklyn and Oakland self-storage facilities, the Draw My Favorite Teacher contest is open to all public schools in Brooklyn and Oakland. To request an entry kit, schools should contact Sarah Little, StorageMart interactive marketing director, at 573.449.0091, ext 4426.

The U-Haul Co. recently purchased four self-storage facilities comprising more than 131,025 square feet of net rentable space in more than 1,145 storage units and 50 RV-parking spaces. The facilities are in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Wisconsin. No financial terms were disclosed.

The acquired self-storage facilities are:

• 2346 Gillespie St. in Fayetteville, N.C. The  property has four single-story self-storage buildings offering more than 230 storage units comprising more than 30,110 square feet of net rentable space.
• 6755 E. Golf Links Road in Tucson, Ariz. The  property has six single-story self-storage buildings offering more than 460 exterior drive-up storage units and 25 RV parking spaces comprising more than 36,285 square feet of net rentable space.
• 3939 Mountain View Road in Oakwood, Ga. The  property has one two-story self-storage building offering more than 140 storage units comprising more than 18,480 square feet of net rentable space.
• 611 W. Puetz Road in Oak Creek, Wis. The  property has nine single-story self-storage buildings offering more than 315 exterior drive-up storage units and 25 RV parking spaces comprising more than 46,150 square feet of net rentable space.

Established in 1945, U-Haul has 36 million square feet of storage space at more than 1,000 owned and managed facilities throughout North America. The company recently completed the acquisition of additional self-storage facilities in Florida, Minnesota and Texas.

Hanover Holdings Ltd. recently purchased US 41 Self Storage in North Fort Myers, Fla., from SunTrust Banks Inc. for $3.2 million. Located at 14150 N. Cleveland Ave. the two-story facility has 76,903 square feet in 438 units, 219 of which are climate-controlled. Built in 2006, the property was foreclosed by SunTrust in July. It sits on 9 acres.

The facility is currently listed as iStorage Fort Myers on iStorage.com, which features 26 self-storage properties throughout Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

SunTrust was represented in the transaction by Michael Mele of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. Based in the firm's Tampa, Fla., office Mele is the company's first vice president investments and senior director of its National Self-Storage Group.

By Christopher Baird

There's a lot of talk in the self-storage industry about the importance of getting people to a facility or business website. Search-engine optimization (SEO), search-engine marketing (SEM), pay-per-click (PPC) and every other acronym related to Web marketing are always part of the discussion. Each plays a critical role in obtaining customers online. While the first step is building an SEO-friendly website, followed by SEM, the final step is rarely talked aboutconverting website visitors into renters.

Getting people to your self-storage facility is not as easy as it once was. It used to be that if you built it, customers would come. It wasnt much different online. About 15 years ago, if you developed a website, you could be on the front page of a search engine in 60 seconds or less. Today, just as a storage facility needs marketing to bring in more customers, a website needs the same attention.

A website will not perform well simply because it exists. I speak to a lot of self-storage operators who just want someone to build them a website. They don't care how as long as its aesthetically pleasing. I also speak with operators whose only concern is to get good ranking. Even if you care about both, there's still a vital piece to consider: What happens once people get to your website?

Today you have to deal with billions of Web competitors, including many that offer online rental capabilities. How will you compete and convert visitors to renters?

How Is Your Website?

If you have a great website and are marketing it online, how is it doing? I dont just mean where you rank in searches, maps, directories or on Facebook, I mean how many new visitors come to your site and how many of them become renters? Successful marketing means getting people to your website and converting them to customers. Following are a few questions to help improve your website in this area.

• Is your website appealing? According to Google, recent research suggests that users decide to stay on or leave your site in just a few seconds. "This limited window of time in which to grab and retain a user's attention makes optimization crucial. By designing a website where users can quickly find what they want, you'll make it easier for them to reach the conversion page and take the action that means business results for you.
   
• Are you competitive? The Internet is largely price driven. Make sure what people see is enticing enough to look further. Offer a special that motivates them to buy right now, and make sure your special stands out on your website. Dont force people to hunt down important information.
   
• Is your website trustworthy? Offer quality content and keep your contact information visible so you can be reached whenever people are ready. Never advertise something that is not easily found on your website.
   
• Are there parts of your website that users find frustrating? Make your site easy to navigate so prospective customers dont get lost or confused. Keep your layout clean and simple, with clearly marked navigation and links and consider your audience. Dont rely on your view of how the website should function. What makes sense to you may not make sense to others.

Once you have answered these questions, you need to determine whether your website offers quality information that will allow prospective customers to make and act on a decision immediately. If you have the right content and offer the ability for them to choose a size but no way for them to reserve a unit, they may just move on to the next website that does. There are those who prefer to call your facility, but if you dont offer a way for people to reserve online, you'll lose those potential sales. So why take that chance?

Your website should have the following as a basic set of tools:

• An interactive map so customers can find you
• A unit-size guide so they know what to rent
• Information about sizes and rates, and a way to reserve the unit online
• A short (and I mean very short) form for inquiries
• A phone number prominently displayed for those who are not ready to reserve online

Measuring Success

How do you track and verify the effectiveness of your website? I dont mean simply tracking Web visitors or search-engine ranking. Even though they are a part of the overall marketing equation, we're mostly interested in rental tracking here.

If you get 1,000 visitors to your website, isnt that good? Just about anyone who understands the basics of Internet marketing can deliver 1,000 website visitors. The real question is, what are those visitors looking for and do they buy anything? What if you were paying for those visitors and they only purchased at one tenth of one percent? Is that good enough? What is the return on your investment for these visitors? These questions will help lead you to find the right answers.

For example, if you received 1,000 clicks to your website and paid $2 per click, you just spent $2,000. Some would stop here and say that's a good deal. However, you cant determine how good a deal it was until you know how many rentals came from those clicks. It's a good deal only if you acquire each tenant at an acceptable cost per acquisition. If you end up with 20 rentals ($100 per rental), that may be a great deal for you; but if you only receive two rentals at $1,000 each, that doesnt seem like a great deal after all.

In short, there are three things you need to do to successfully promote your website. First, build an SEO-friendly website that looks good enough to keep visitors engaged. Second, continuously market that website everywhere you can. Third, make sure the site functions well enough to convert at the highest possible percentage. Remember, if you can track the rental conversions back to the dollars you spent, you have yourself a roadmap to success.

Christopher Baird is the CEO of Tucson, Ariz.-based Automatit Inc., which offers full-service Web development and marketing services to self-storage companies nationwide. He has more than 15 years of experience in website marketing and search engine optimization. Prior to joining Automatit in 2001, he was a freelance Web designer. For more information, call 520.293.4608; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.automatit.net.

College Point Storage, a 100,000-square-foot, multi-story self-storage facility in Lacey, Wash., is expected to open formally on Nov. 1, although about 10,000 square feet of single-story perimeter units are already available for rent. The $7.2 million project is being built by local developer Prime Development Group.

The facilitys centerpiece is a three-story, 90,000-square-foot building offering climate-controlled units. The building incorporates recycled steel and concrete in its construction and was designed to look like a research and development facility. We didnt want it to look like a typical storage place, said developer Jeff Powell.

The building also has two freight elevators, 16 security cameras and sensor-activated lighting. West Coast Self Storage will manage the property, Powell said. The entire facility offers 718 units, which will rent from $40 to $144 per month, depending on the size.

The facility is part of a larger commercial development called Whitman Village at Yelm Highway and College Street.

Public Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust, has purchased a facility from Val Vista Storage LLC in Mesa, Ariz., for $3 million. The deal for the 56,800-square-foot facility was brokered by Norman Herd of Empire Commercial Real Estate.

Built in 1998, the facility offers 393 units, about one-third of which are climate-controlled. The property offers substantial visibility on a heavily traveled street, Herd said.

Val Vista Storage is a Phoenix-based investment group with holdings in Arizona and Colorado.

Based in Glendale, Calif., Public Storage has interests in 2,068 self-storage facilities in 38 states with approximately 132 million net rentable square feet. Operating under the Shurgard brand name, the company also has 189 facilities in Western Europe with approximately 10 million net rentable square feet.

Empire Commercial Real Estate focuses on single-use properties, including self-storage investments, mobile home parks, hotels and apartment real estate.

Self-storage is blossoming in markets worldwide. Not only are investors and developers seeking to enter untapped areas, operators in various regions crave insight to succeeding in countries where self-storage is an unfamiliar product.

To provide information to global investors, builders and operators, Inside Self-Storage has released its 2012 International Digital Issue, which includes an array of in-depth articles about the growth, challenges and operation of self-storage in Asia, Australia, Canada, Japan, Latin America, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, the Middle East and the United Kingdom. Facility owners, managers and investors will find expert content on trends, association activity, real estate and more. Covered topics include:

• Market and association activity in Canada, including deep-drill insight on the British Columbia real estate market
• Market and association activity in Latin America, including an exploration of regional growth and a detailed look at the Brazilian market
• A market overview of Australia and New Zealand, including operator consensus and insights on the industry, and a look at large players and strategies of existing businesses
• Insight to market trends and expansion in Asia including emerging operators, cultural changes, and an interview with Michael Hagbeck, CEO of Extra Space Self Storage Singapore
• A market snapshot of self-storage in Japan, including an in-depth view of the "trunk-room" industry from the eyes of the country's largest operator
• Self-storage expansion and plans in the United Arab Emirates and other countries of the Middle East
• An overview of market conditions in the United Kingdom including economic factors and performance trends
• A market overview and discussion of Russia's self-storage renaissance
• A close look at the burgeoning South Africa market and the story of Giba Storage in KwaZulu-Natal province

The publication is available for free download at www.insideselfstorage.com/digital-issues.

For more than 20 years, ISS has provided informational resources for the self-storage industry. Its educational offerings include a monthly magazine, annual conferences and tradeshows, an extensive website, an education institute, an online store, and Self-Storage Talk, the industrys largest online community.